This latest news from the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. Ed
Police and Crime Commissioner, Michael Lane, has welcomed his Youth Commission’s recommendations on how young people would like the key issues of mental health, substances, cyber safety and relationships with authorities tackled in the future.
Youth Commission members consulted over 3,500 of their peers across Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Southampton and Portsmouth to identify the most important crime and policing issues for young people and the actions they feel can be taken locally to make improvements.
Mental health came out as the issue of most concern to young people with 45% of those taking part in the big conversation selecting it as their top priority. Staying safe online came second, substance misuse third and improving relationships between young people and authorities fourth.
Recommendations put forward
At its conference on Saturday 25 March the Youth Commission put 16 recommendations to the Commissioner, Constabulary and partner agencies that work with young people.
The recommendations set out how young people would like to see organisations work together to make improvements in the support, information, services and advice that is available for young people.
The recommendations include:
- Ensure there is help available for young people with mental health issues, no matter how severe or small the case is. Examine the guidelines on when things are ‘bad enough’ to give help.
- Introduction of Cyber Ambassadors in schools.
- Using young people to develop, or work in partnership with substance misuse campaigns, focusing on using social media effectively.
- Create more opportunities to get to know police as people, including utilising police cadets.
Michael Lane said:
“Over the past year members of my Youth Commission have worked hard to ensure that the voices of young people are heard on topical issues they find important. They have committed several hundred hours of their own time to volunteer to researching and delivering improvements around policing and crime.
“The recommendations they have presented set out practical steps that once implemented could make a significant difference in areas of concern to young people. I look forward to working with the Youth Commission and our partners to take these recommendations forward.”
Youth Commission members
Marcia Tanyanyiwa said,
“Of the four main areas of focus to choose from, Mental Health really caught my interest considering it is something that is not talked about but yet bothering a lot of people.
“By contributing towards getting rid of the stigma surrounding mental health, I have also developed deeper understanding of it.”
Katie Vincent said,
“I chose Cyber Safety as my priority area as I feel that the rise in cyber related crimes and negative experiences faced by young people needs to be addressed. I believe that it is crucial for us to start highlighting some of the dangers online to the young users of social media.”
Tessa Bundy said,
“I decided to focus my time in the Youth Commission on improving relations between young people and authorities, specifically the police, as I felt it was important that both young people and the police have a way of communicating their feelings. The Youth Commission has given me lots of opportunities, which I never thought I could be able to do. It isn’t every day you train a group of police officers.”
Gaby Day,
“I chose substance misuse as I believe it’s the most commonly accepted issue however, I feel many don’t know the risks and consequences that could occur with misuse of legal substances like alcohol and illegal drugs.
“Another reason was that not many people know about the change in law for Psychoactive Substances, which are a huge issue with health care due to the unknown affects. It’s an issue that needs to be tackled in order to prevent future fatalities.”
